The Penny...

In Economic Action Plan 2012, the Government announced it would phase out the penny from Canada's coinage system. The decision to phase out the penny was due to its excessive and rising cost of production relative to face value, the increased accumulation of pennies by Canadians in their households, environmental considerations, and the significant handling costs the penny imposes on retailers, financial institutions and the economy in general.

The estimated savings for taxpayers from phasing out the penny is $11 million a year.The cent will remain Canada's smallest unit for pricing goods and services. This will have no impact on payments made by cheque or electronic transactions—only cash transactions will be affected. Moreover, pennies can still be used in cash transactions indefinitely with businesses that choose to accept them.

They said on a History Channel show about this subject, that they have tried to do away with the US Penny on several occasions. But it seems that the general public (as a whole) love it too much to get rid of it..

I have $35 in Canadian money from when I was up there in 2001 or so, anyone want to exchange with me ? Could I just take it to a bank?

I'd find a place to exchange it, quick! The Canadian dollar is near parity with the US dollar, right now. Historically, it's been worth only around $.78-.$.85 US.

Cash it in before it drops again!

It's actually been worth a couple cents more than the US dollar until maybe three weeks ago when it dropped just below. It's at 0.97 right now. Take out the banks share to exchange it and you'll probably get 93-95 cents on the dollar for it.